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Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation is the only Foundation in Australia exclusively dedicated to pancreatic cancer, with a mission to dramatically improve survival rates and quality of life for those impacted by the disease.

Promising results in mouse trial of cannabis drug

Cannabidiol, a natural ingredient found in cannabis, dramatically extended survival when combined with the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine

A recent studyfunded by Avner’s Foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund of a new treatment for Pancreatic Cancer, has nearly tripled the effects of chemotherapy in mice. Cannabidiol, a natural ingredient found in cannabis, dramatically extended survival when combined with the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine.

A 3-year Accelerator Grant awarded to Professor Marco Falasca and his team at Curtin University made the project possible.

Professor Falasca and his team were able to show in a small sample, that mice given the combination therapy survived almost three times longer than mice given chemotherapy alone. Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive compound (unlike THC which is the psychoactive component of cannabis) and acts by blocking a particular protein receptor. This receptor is responsible for the growth of some types of Pancreatic Cancer cells.

While the preliminary results are promising, the effects will need to be confirmed in a larger sample before being extended to a human trial.

The study also involved researchers from the Queen Mary University of London, D’Annunzio University in Italy, Fondazione Edo ed Elvo Tempia and The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Scotland.